The standard system of music notation uses an upper (or treble) clef and a lower (or bass) clef, each clef having five parallel horizontal lines, with each line and intervening space representing a specific note on the A-G scale, corresponding to the white keys on a piano. To indicate that a particular note is to be played, an oval note symbol is centered on the line, or marked in the space, corresponding to the desired note. When a desired note does not come within either of the standard clefs, supplemental spaced lines must be added above or below the appropriate clef, allowing the desired note to be marked on or adjacent to one of the added lines. A person reading the music thus notated can determine the identity of a note above or below a clef with reference to the number of added lines.
When a desired note corresponds to one of the black keys on a piano, a note symbol is marked on a line or in a space corresponding to a note adjacent to the desired note, and an “accidental” symbol (i.e., a “sharp” or “flat” symbol) is added to the note symbol, indicating that the note to be played is actually one half-tone higher or lower (as the case may be) than the note symbol would otherwise suggest. Key signatures are indicated by showing sharp or flat symbols at the left end of each clef, corresponding to the sharp or flat notes in the scale of the musical key in question (e.g., C major, E-flat minor, etc.). This makes it unnecessary to use accidentals every time the music calls for a note corresponding to a black key. At the same time, however, it can complicate matters for the music student, who must learn to remember that not every note symbol necessarily means what it might appear to mean at first glance, but must be interpreted with reference to the relevant key signature. Even for accomplished musicians, it makes music-reading more difficult in the case of compositions written in keys having a large number of sharps or flats.
In the standard notation system, vertical lines are drawn across the clefs to indicate the beginning or end of each bar (or “measure”) in a musical composition. A bar represents a specific number of beats (or time intervals) corresponding to the time signature (i.e., tempo) of the music. For example, a “¾” time signature indicates that 3 quarter-notes (or notes totaling the equivalent thereof) are to be played per bar (i.e., waltz tempo), whereas a “ 6/8” time signature indicates that 6 eighth-notes are to be played per bar. The time signature is typically indicated at the left end of each clef. When a particular note symbol requires an accidental, and when the same note is to be played more than once within the same bar, the accidental is applied only to the first corresponding note symbol in the bar, and the reader is to understand that the same accidental is implied in respect of every other corresponding note symbol in the bar. This convention avoids the need to use accidental symbols for each and every sharp or flat note, but it presents yet another difficulty for someone learning to read and play music—once again, not every note symbol necessarily means what it indicates at first glance.
The standard notation system uses various ways to indicate the length of a note, or the duration of time for which it is to be held. For example, if the oval note symbol is solidly shaded and has a vertical stem line, it indicates a quarter-note. A similar notation but with the oval note symbol being unshaded, denotes a half-note. An unshaded note symbol with no stem line denotes a whole note, corresponding to the length of a bar. Notes of shorter duration than a quarter-note are indicated as for quarter-notes, but with one or two or more angled lines marked on the stem lines, with each angled line indicating that the note length is to be half of what it would have been without the angled line. For instance, an eighth-note looks like a quarter-note with one angled line of the stem, a sixteenth-note looks like a quarter-note with two angled lines, and so on. Another convention used in the standard notation system is to place a dot to the right of a note symbol, indicating that the note is to have a duration 50% greater than would otherwise have been suggested. For instance, a quarter-note with a dot beside it would have a duration equal to one-and-a-half quarter-notes. As the preceding examples illustrate, the standard music notation system incorporates several different and non-intuitive conventions for indicating note length, thus giving new students even more rules to remember as they learn to read music.
The standard notation system uses a system of letters (e.g., p, mf, sfz, etc.) and symbols (e.g., for crescendos and accents) to indicate sound intensity, or volume. These markings can easily be misunderstood or missed entirely.
Standard notation lacks an integrated system for indicating the harmonic structure of a musical composition. While chord names (e.g., Bmin7) may be included in some music scores and charts, the actual notes that constitute the chords are not shown. Likewise, the notes of the scales or modes suitable for improvisation are not typically shown in standard notation.
In addition to standard notation, many alternative systems have been developed to visually represent music. Among these, “piano roll” notation and Klavarskribo (or Klavar) address some of the usability issues of standard notation, while neglecting or creating other issues. For example, piano roll notation, often seen in music production software, typically provides color coding, variable-length symbols to indicate note duration, and a chromatic keyboard-style layout. However, piano roll notation is best suited to music editing, rather than learning and performance. The user is presented with visual representation of notes, but no guidance on which hand or finger plays the notes, or design elements to provide context within the layout. Also, the connection lines in standard notation that indicate musical phrases or groups of notes are absent in piano roll notation.
The foregoing discussion illustrates only some of the features of the standard and known alternative music notation systems that make it difficult for many people to learn to read and play music. In view of such known difficulties associated with the standard notation system, there is a need for a new music notation system that is easier to read and learn. In particular, there is a need for a new music notation system that is less abstract that the standard system, by using note representations that are visually referable to the notes on a keyboard instrument. There is a further need for a new music notation system that uses separate note indications for each specific musical tone, without requiring special markings to indicate the musical octave in which a desired note is located. In addition, there is a need for a new music notation system that eliminates the need for accidental symbols to indicate notes corresponding to black keys on a keyboard music notation system, such that each note indication denotes precisely the same note in all contexts, regardless of the key signature. There is a yet further need for a music notation system that provides a direct visual representation of note lengths, thus eliminating the need to interpret note indications in accordance with non-intuitive conventions in order to determine how long the indicated notes are to be held. The present invention is directed to these needs.